Moyo Mmoja Guest House

Here is a link to the guest house in which we will be staying at in Bagamoyo.


http://moyommoja.org/members/news?mode=static&cat=9108&zid=NOC10000589&mother=0&sub=0

The Countdown

I finished my exams last Friday and now I am able to concentrate on the trip! I have found it very hard to balance my time and my efforts in terms of what I need to do and what I want to do. For the past few months I had to concentrate on school one hundred percent, it had to be my first priority, I had to place my involvement with Tanzania to the back of my mind. Without Champlain College, what I do at Champlain and my academic performance I would not have this opportunity.

This Thursday I plan to meet with a couple who have recently traveled to Tanzania. I look forward to hearing their perspective of the country and the culture and thus comparing it with the experience in which I will have upon my return.

I also hope to speak with a father of a little girl who I watch at the after school program who worked in Tanzania and the surrounding countries.

Additionally, my birthday partner Phoebe Barash traveled to Tanzania when she was a teenager and did volunteer work in the country.

There are so many local connections to Tanzania within our community. I would have never guessed. It was through speaking up and putting the world out there that people came forth with a tremendous amount of advice based upon their experiences to offer me.

I believe that everyone's perspective will be useful for me to hear!

Group Website

Joe Mester, a Junior at Champlain College and also member of our trip going to Tanzania, is very talented with computers. He graciously used his skills to create a brochure for our trip and also a group website. The website provides the history of the trip, information about the current trip, news from the two orphanages that we will be volunteering at and photos from the previous year. Members of this years trip have blog links (linking you to this site!) and also biography pages with photos. To access our biographies, follow the "Current Trip" link and scroll down to the bottom of the page. Thank you Joe for bringing our trip to the land of "Virtual Life", the world wide web. Please feel free to share the group website with anyone you know!

Homepage: http://www.teachfortomorrowcc.com/index.html

My Biography: http://www.teachfortomorrowcc.com/nichole_baker.html

Bottle Drive Update

A quick update: As of March 31, 2010 I have redeemed 18,000 returnable cans! Thank you to everyone for their support!

The Road Has Been Paved & I've Been Poked

The tickets were finally purchased this week by the group travel agent. Ashely (one of our group leaders) sent us the message on Monday. What a great day Monday became! Seven months ago I became aware of this opportunity at a Champlain College student club fair. For seven months, I have been dreaming and for the next two months I will be in overdrive trying to understand, predict, become more culturally literate and envision the experience I will have.

Let's have some fun, do you think can guess my itinerary?

Below are images of the locations in which I will be stopping in order to get to my final destination.

I'll be driving to this location _________________.



Then flying to ___________.



Departing and flying to ______________.



Making a quick connection to catch a flight to _______________.



And finally, trying to contain my excitement on the last leg of my journey to __________________.




I will be flying from Boston to Washington DC to Rome, Italy to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and then finally to Dar es Salaam!

How well did you do?

The road has been paved. The tickets have been bought. This is real. So what was my next step?

The international travel clinic at Fletcher Allen. Today I had the joy of becoming someone's personal voodoo doll. $400 later, I was able to go off on my merry way with three bandages and a few written prescriptions to be filled right before my departure.

Today I received the Yellow Fever vaccination, a Polio booster and a delightful typhoid immunization. I also will be taking Mefloquine malaria pills before, during and after my time in Tanzania and if needed I am prepared with Ciprofloxacin (let us leave it at...you don't want to know what they are for...).

Let the time drift on by until May 17th. On the 18th when I arrive, let time stop...or at least continue in slow motion....until I eventually arrive back in Boston on the 8th of June.


Stay tuned for a few documentary recommendations soon!

The United States Relationship with Tanzania

At our weekly meetings in the Center for Service & Civic Engagement office at Champlain College we brainstorm and report about fundraising, talk about Tanzanian culture, learn Swahili phrases and hear from individual members about a topic of their choosing relating to Tanzania.

Tomorrow is my day to report on the United States relationship with Tanzania. Through online research I read an article by Tony Waters the Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Sociology at California State University. His article American Relations with Tanzania was composed through outside research and also with insights of his involvement with Tanzania as a Fullbright Scholar at the University of Dar Es Salaam and also through work he has done in country.

Here is a link to his article:
http://www.africa.ufl.edu/asq/v8/v8i3a3.htm

Here are some important bullet points from his article;

• US and Tanzania have had good relations historically
• Our relation tightened with Tanzania after the 1998 bombing of the US Embassy in Dar Es Salaam
• With the election of President Kikwete Tanzanian relations with the US improved
• President Kikwete was the first African president to meet with President Obama



• The United States supports programs in peace and security, democracy, health, education, economic growth and natural resource management
• There are approximately 147 Peace Corps volunteers currently stationed in Tanzania
• US assistance is often considered as ‘funding’
• Current US involvement/funding in Tanzania are in these major projects;
President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief
President’s Malaria Initiative
Millennium Challenge Account
• Since Tanzania isn’t able to offer the United States much economically, the United States funds programs more favorably in other countries
• “Official American today often treats Tanzania as a mildly annoying child”
• The programs which Tanzania is receiving aid from are ‘grab bag programs’
• One ‘grab bag program’ is the Millennium Challenge program which was signed by President Kikwete and also former President Georege W. Bush as a bilateral development fund and went into force in 2008. This five-year grant program of $698 million currently goes towards reducing poverty, stimulating the economy and increasing household income through projects in transportation, energy and water. For more information a fact sheet is available at
http://www.mcc.gov/mcc/countries/tanzania/index.shtml

While it is clear that the United States does not pay as much attention to Tanzania as other countries in the world, the government is still assisting the country. The question becomes, how much aid can and should we provide Tanzania? Is it our responsibility to assist nations that are less developed than our own? How do we best help the people and the government of Tanzania develop? The answers to these questions are often hotly contested from numerous standpoints. That is why in my opinion work through the Peach Corps and also individual volunteers like myself enable work to get done directly. Volunteers who see a void and try to fill that void create change.

Time Difference

Time differs all around the world. Common knowledge of the standard time zones is important. However, cultural time differences that are not published may be even more important. For instance, the time difference between the local time in Vermont and Tanzania is eight hours (TZ 8+). This is knowledge in which anyone could find online or by asking a travel agent. But, what is not published is ever so crucial.

Swahili Time versus Mzungu Time.

To start, mzungu means white traveler or white man in Swahili.

When making an appointment with a Tanzanian it is important to ask if the schedualed time is in 'Swahili Time' or 'Mzungu Time'.

The difference is significant.

A six hour difference.

If a Tanzanian casually says that he'll meet you at 3...what he really means is that he will show up at 9.

When traveling in different parts of our own country and abroad, clarification can save you a lot of hassle!

Let's hope I remember to ask, "Mzungu time or Swahili time?"